Isles of Seven Cities

A phantom island is an island whose existence has been accepted for a certain period of time (sometimes centuries) and has been mentioned on maps, but which has subsequently been removed because it has been proven not to be real. There are many possible explanations for these geographical fictions: geopolitical and economic interests, cartographic copyrights, rumours, memes, hoaxes, legends, and more. These phantom islands have never physically existed, but they have had a real impact on the Western world. Isles of Seven Cities is not a monograph, but rather an artist’s book – a hybrid edition that combines the visual and textual narratives of these seven ghost islands. Fictional and real archives meet in a non-linear, fragmented logic, as a meta-island emerges from the whole.

Stéphanie Roland (1984) is a Brussels-based visual artist and filmmaker known for her distinctive work that blends documentary and fantasy. Her films and installations explore themes such as the invisible structures of the Western world, large timescales and hyper-objects, drawing inspiration from environmentalism, politics, geology, and the cosmos. Roland studied at La Cambre in Brussels and with Hito Steyerl at the UDK Berlin, and later completed a course at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains in France. Her work has been shown at the Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou, Louvre, Benaki Museum, Wiels, among others. Her films, including Podesta Island and Le cercle vide, have been screened at multiple international festivals and have won awards, including the Alice Guy Prize at FID Marseille and the TËNK Award at Visions du Réel.